Free Digital Toolkit Helps Professors Design Their Own Adaptive Lessons

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 8, 2016) - St. Petersburg College and Smart Sparrow unveiled, today, the Learning Design Starter Kit, a free learning design tool designed to help faculty worldwide create their own digital resources and improve student engagement.

Colleges and universities, worldwide, are making unprecedented investments in digital resources and data analytics designed to improve student engagement. But as publishing goes digital, the potential of faculty-generated content is often overlooked. With the Learning Design Starter Kit, St. Petersburg College and Smart Sparrow are putting the tools to create next generation online resources directly in the hands of faculty and instructional designers.

"Smart use of adaptive learning has to start with faculty-led planning and instructional design," said Dawn Joyce, Professor of Communications at St. Petersburg College. "The Learning Design Starter Kit is an important resource because it gives faculty an opportunity to see how engaging adaptive learning technology is for students. Change is always intimidating, but the Learning Design Starter Kit helps faculty in this transitional phase by providing resources and support every step of the way."

The Learning Design Starter Kit includes:

• Resources on learning design
• Adaptive lessons on how to plan and design learning for each student
• Case studies from instructional designers and faculty
• Tools and support that help faculty create the right program for their students' success
• An opportunity to create your own rich, interactive, and adaptive courseware
  
  

"Today's teaching and learning technologies often cut academics out of the design process, and make it difficult to customize content or pedagogy," said Dror Ben-Naim, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Smart Sparrow. "Faculty have a profound understanding of the types of tools and learning experiences needed to motivate and engage students in a digital age -- our job is to help them to make their vision a reality, and receive real-time data to improve the teaching and learning process over time."

With the toolkit, faculty will learn how to design online resources rooted in cutting-edge learning science, capture user data to evaluate student engagement, and create rich, interactive, and adaptive courseware.

The Learning Design Kit was developed with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is available for free to instructional designers and educators. Smart Sparrow tools, including the first-ever learning design platform, are currently used in over 500 institutions around the world. Smart Sparrow powers international teaching networks like Inspark Science Network and the BEST Network.

The Learning Design Starter Kit is available at http://learningdesignkit.com/.

About St. Petersburg College
Founded in 1927, SPC was Florida's first two-year college and the state's first community college to offer bachelor's degrees (2002). St. Petersburg College offers more than 100 degree and certificate programs that are tailored to meet the needs of in-demand industries. Our innovative faculty provide applied and simulated learning experiences inside and outside of the classroom that promote student success through education, career development, and self-discovery. www.spcollege.edu

About Smart Sparrow
Smart Sparrow is a learning design platform for next-generation courseware. It allows any educator to create amazingly engaging and adaptive learning experiences and then continuously improve them using learner analytics. Students are better supported and more motivated to succeed. Smart Sparrow believes in designing tools that support great teaching, and put faculty first to unlock the potential of adaptive learning. www.smartsparrow.com